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Molds


Aria

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Happy New Year everyone!

After 4 years of being in the truffle business, I think I'm ready to make molded chocolates! I kept resisting but now realise how much more you can do with molding like have a very soft center! Well, what kind of molds do ppl suggest I start with? I'd like to have 2 kinds to offer customers for VDay ( heart shaped and round ). On the Chocolat/chocolat website, there are clear Asian molds, Belgian, French...it's very confusing. Thanks in advance!

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So long as they are polycarbonate they should be fine. To begin with I would go for some standard shapes as they are easier to fill-especially ovals or rounds. A heart, a round one with a swirl (@) on the top, an oval, like the cameo for ex, and if it is just plain then you can decorate it a bit.

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By all means, start with the clear Belgian molds. That way, you can see if the chocolate was tempered correctly.

Also, pay attention to the height of the piece. It's easier if all of the pieces in a box are at the same height so that your candy pad sits flat and the others don't knock around too much.

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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What are the benefits of using the magnetic versus regular molds? I have only seen the magnetic ones used in the eG demo for doing the patterns on the top of pieces. Is that the main reason for their existence?

Yes, exactly. You can do both transfer sheets and structure sheets if you want a more 3-D surface. Examples of both are in the demo:

Demo: Transfer Sheets on Chocolate Bonbons, Using Magnetic Chocolate Molds

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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Aria,

You have to come over sometime and dig through all my molds - to help you decide which shapes and sizes you want to order from Chocolat-chocolat. Bought sight unseen you sometimes end up with a bigger or smaller chocolate than you want.

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Aria,

You have to come over sometime and dig through all my molds - to help you decide which shapes and sizes you want to order from Chocolat-chocolat.  Bought sight unseen you sometimes end up with a bigger or smaller chocolate than you want.

Never were truer words spoken! I remember sitting at my computer with a ruler trying to figure out how big 'X' mm would be; it wasn't easy. And yes, I did end up with some that were too large.

It's just so much easier to see the molds before buying. Definitely take Kerry up on her offer.

John DePaula
formerly of DePaula Confections
Hand-crafted artisanal chocolates & gourmet confections - …Because Pleasure Matters…
--------------------
When asked “What are the secrets of good cooking? Escoffier replied, “There are three: butter, butter and butter.”

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I second that, it is really hard to guestimate the size molds you need.

Also, for starting out, I think the less detail the better until you get the hang of getting rid of all the bubbles. A nice simple heart without detail is perfect.

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Also, for starting out, I think the less detail the better until you get the hang of getting rid of all the bubbles.  A nice simple heart without detail is perfect.

That was my thinking, too - unfortunately, Chef Rubber told me today that the basic hemispheres are backordered :sad: . I had to go with the prismatic ones... hopefully it will work out. All of the shiny molded chocolates I see here make me envious, so I want to make some!

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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Also, for starting out, I think the less detail the better until you get the hang of getting rid of all the bubbles.  A nice simple heart without detail is perfect.

That was my thinking, too - unfortunately, Chef Rubber told me today that the basic hemispheres are backordered :sad: . I had to go with the prismatic ones... hopefully it will work out. All of the shiny molded chocolates I see here make me envious, so I want to make some!

Prismatic ones are still a nice basic mold. I'll think you'll be happy with the results.

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I buy my moulds from Chocolate World in Belgium (clear Belgian molds) - they give the weight of each piece (solid mold) for all molds, which is a great guide to making relatively uniform size chocolates of varying designs

Good luck with the moulded adventure - it is a whole new world :-)

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One thing I dont understand about Tomric,why do they have a surcarge for their imported molds ( all the poly are anyways!) and the other company that sell the same molds, dont?I actually save little bit on my molds , when I order them from Canada ( dr/ca or chocolat-chocolat),boh.

Vanessa

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I buy my molds from jbprince.com, which also sells other pastry stuff.

What are the benefits of using the magnetic versus regular molds?[

Another advantage for beginners (besides transfer sheet that John mentioned) is that if you haven't gotten the hang of tempering chocolate and cooling molds, magnetic molds can be more forgiving when popping out chocolates (because you can physically go in the backside and pop them out).

THe magnetic molds that I use (round and square) are somewhat smaller than the nonmagnetic ones I use (dome, kugelhopf, geodesic dome and so on). So what Kerry said is also true, you have to be careful about sizes.

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